ORLANDO -- Court officials suffered through a second day of air-conditioning problems at the Orange County Courthouse on Wednesday. Hearings and trials were canceled after noon because there was no cool air. It was unclear whether it will be repaired today. The downtown Orlando building will be open during normal hours, but no new trials will begin. Hearings and other proceedings scheduled for the morning were still set to go, 9th Circuit Court spokeswoman Karen Levey said. Officials will assess the conditions at midday to determine how to handle the afternoon.

The top appointed official at Orlando City Hall resigned Tuesday, making him the second high-level employee to leave Mayor Buddy Dyer's administration this month. Richard Levey, who oversaw the city's day-to-day operations as Dyer's chief administrative officer, left in what the mayor described as a "mutual decision." "Richard indicated to me as much as a year ago that he has outside opportunities that were very lucrative for him," Dyer said. "I thought it was the right time." Levey said he planned to take time off before taking another job. He delayed his resignation because he didn't want to leave while Dyer was suspended.

The top appointed official at Orlando City Hall resigned Tuesday, making him the second high-level employee to leave Mayor Buddy Dyer's administration this month. Richard Levey, who oversaw the city's day-to-day operations as Dyer's chief administrative officer, left in what the mayor described as a "mutual decision." "Richard indicated to me as much as a year ago that he has outside opportunities that were very lucrative for him," Dyer said. "I thought it was the right time." Levey said he planned to take time off before taking another job. He delayed his resignation because he didn't want to leave while Dyer was suspended.

ORLANDO -- Court officials suffered through a second day of air-conditioning problems at the Orange County Courthouse on Wednesday. Hearings and trials were canceled after noon because there was no cool air. It was unclear whether it will be repaired today. The downtown Orlando building will be open during normal hours, but no new trials will begin. Hearings and other proceedings scheduled for the morning were still set to go, 9th Circuit Court spokeswoman Karen Levey said. Officials will assess the conditions at midday to determine how to handle the afternoon.

Page after page of policies and objectives, tables and charts. Boring stuff like that is the substance of most comprehensive plans, state-mandated outlines for growth.But Orlando is striving for higher ground. Sure, the city has its share of the dry fiber in its growth blueprint. But it also has drawn up some art in its plans.Planners are quick to point out that they are not requiring that Orlando have a certain number of sculptures or paintings before developers break ground on a new high-rise.

Orange County commissioners Homer Hartage and Bob Freeman nearly threw more than verbal jabs last week.According to Hartage (and a few spectators), the two got into a heated exchange minutes before last week's meeting.Hartage said he wanted to tell Freeman that even though the two disagreed on Freeman's nomination of Michael O'Quinn to the planning and zoning board, maybe they would agree on something else down the road.Freeman then told Hartage to go sit down. ``I said, `Don't tell me where to sit!

President Clinton, who came up empty-handed last year in a high-stakes auction of a puppy, avoided a bidding war this year. But one of his speeches fetched $4,000. The president attended the annual auction Saturday at Sidwell Friends, the private school his daughter, Chelsea, attends. Auctioneer Bob Levey said Clinton apparently did not bid - avoiding the letdown of last year, when his $3,500 offer was not enough to take home a golden retriever for Chelsea. Levey said Clinton donated an autographed copy of his 1994 State of the Union address, and it sold for $4,000.

Orlando's police and fire dispatchers, as well as the city's Emergency Operations Center, likely will be relocated under a plan presented Tuesday to the City Council.In an effort to prepare for future space needs and centralize the city's emergency services, an old Navy building near the Orlando Executive Airport would be reconfigured as a bunker-style communications center. Officials envision a state-of-the-art facility, including video monitoring of the area's roads.Currently, police and fire dispatchers work out of different downtown buildings.

A top Orlando official's computer may have been spirited away to cover up proof that the city ignored potentially fatal health problems among some firefighters, a City Council member said Tuesday. "There ought to be an outside investigation," said Council member Don Ammerman, who has often clashed with Mayor Glenda Hood. "I don't trust anyone inside City Hall to do it." The allegations of a City Hall cover-up could prove to be the most damaging yet to Hood's administration since 13 firefighters sued the city last July.

Orlando's top administrator said Wednesday that a "stream of consciousness" draft memo he wrote was wrong and that senior city officials were unaware Church Street Station's new developers owed back taxes when the City Council approved $2 million in incentives. Instead, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Levey blamed an unnamed staff member who obtained the tax records for failing to advise his bosses. The draft memo differed dramatically from what is being called the "final" version the city released Wednesday.

Top-ranking Orlando staff members knew Church Street Station developers owed more than $500,000 in back taxes before an unsuspecting City Council approved more than $2 million in incentives for the project in February 2003, according to an internal draft memo. The memo contradicts several officials' claims in January that they had just learned about the tax debt and had not withheld information from council members to push through the deal. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer cited the delinquent bill then as one reason the city would not pay any incentive money to developer Robert Kling and boy-band creator Lou Pearlman, who are remaking the once-abandoned tourist attraction.

The biggest organizational shake-up at City Hall in two decades will be set into motion Monday if Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer can sell the City Council on his plan to gain more power over day-to-day operations. The new mayor said Friday he wants to make his mark on city government while ridding it of the structure put in place by former Mayor Glenda Hood, which he said in some cases just "didn't seem to make much sense." The most dramatic change would create a nine-member Cabinet that would report directly to Dyer.

Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood acknowledged Thursday that she knew many details about the city's multimillion-dollar budget deficit as early as October, despite her previous assertions this week that she did not know until the end of the year. Hood revealed Monday the city ended the 2001-02 budget year with a deficit of nearly $12 million, the steepest percentage shortfall in 15 years. Upon breaking the news, the mayor said she did not learn of the deficit until December. However, Orlando Chief Administrative Officer Richard Levey and Chief Financial Officer Mickey Miller said Thursday that they were aware of the full scope of the multimillion-dollar deficit in October -- and that Levey met with Hood later that month to tell her the deficit likely would hit about $15 million.

Prospective jurors soon will be able to take free bus trips to and from the Orange County Courthouse. Starting Oct. 1, anyone summoned for jury duty can use their court paperwork as a bus pass on Lynx bus routes across the county. People seated for trials can also use the system for free. A court-based committee reviewing jury duty issues over the past year found day-care and public-transportation costs to be major concerns. Recently, the courthouse opened "A Place for Children" -- an on-site day care -- to children of jurors.

A top Orlando official's computer may have been spirited away to cover up proof that the city ignored potentially fatal health problems among some firefighters, a City Council member said Tuesday. "There ought to be an outside investigation," said Council member Don Ammerman, who has often clashed with Mayor Glenda Hood. "I don't trust anyone inside City Hall to do it." The allegations of a City Hall cover-up could prove to be the most damaging yet to Hood's administration since 13 firefighters sued the city last July.

Smarting from a verbal whipping from Orange County commissioners a week ago, Orlando officials fired back Monday, defending the city's right to annex homes and businesses. Hoping to shift the debate over annexations into a broader philosophical discussion, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Levey reminded City Council members why they want to take more land into the city, and of their right to do so. "I hardly would characterize this as a city `out of control,' " Levey said, referring to the phrase used last week by Orange County Commissioner Clarence Hoenstine.

Richard Levey, Orlando's chief administrative officer has sat through plenty of tense meetings, but perhaps none more tense than one this week. The project: Levey's own house. Levey asked the city's Board of Zoning Adjustment for permission to build a room addition and new pool deck closer to the property line than city codes allow. Levey did a bit of hand-wringing when a neighbor took the dais to oppose the request. The neighbor said he blamed Levey for a crackdown on unpermitted construction that put the kabosh on his garage apartment.

Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood, rumored to be seeking a job in the Bush administration, met with the president during his visit last week to the Orange County Convention Center. But, no, Hood did not talk about employment opportunities while riding in the first limousine with George W., Gov. Jeb Bush and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez. Small talk was the order of the day, said Hood's spokeswoman, Susan Blexrud. "They probably talked about the weather," she said. Bush was in town to speak to a convention of cardiologists.